The Wicked Waltz
by Arawrasaur
Summary: Year Four of Harry Potter. Lia Evans has to choose between her Slytherin boy Draco Malfoy or a Gryffindor Guy Fred Weasley.


Chaos. Utter chaos was the theme of the dream this time. People were running and screaming everywhere. Tents lay scattered upon the ground. Fires scattered the field. Lia searched for the problem. The focus shifted to a group of people in masks. _Death Eaters_, Lia thought. Above them, there were people floating. They looked like Muggles. She scanned the crowd for herself. Almost everyone was in their pajamas, but she saw no sign of her throughout.

Lia assumed it was a dream of the past and lost interest. It was only the future she was interested in. She hated dreams about the past. There was no hope to change the past, but she could change her future. Then again, she thought she might have seen an auburn haired girl running into the forest with a set of ginger twins. She tried to refocus the dream, but it was too late. It was getting murkier and more difficult to see each second. She could almost see something, then she lost it.

"Lia!"

She ignored the voice and tried to look again.

"Lia! You need to get up now before my mother has a fit! And don't make me get the water!"

Lia groaned and sat up on her elbows. "I'm up, I'm awake, now go before I'm coherent enough to hex you." She dropped her head back onto the pillow.

"Come on _Amelia_, wake up!" She heard a frustrated sigh and retreating footsteps. She smirked and closed her eyes again and tried to go back to the dream. She hardly had time to hear the returning footsteps before the ice cold liquid hit her.

"Ugh, _Draco_! Now I'm soaking wet!" Lia leaped out of bed and attempted to wring out her clothes.

Draco set the bucket he was holding down. "I warned you. It's your fault you didn't listen."

"Did I ever mention how much I detest you?" she asked.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Get dressed. My mother says breakfast is almost ready." With that, he picked up the bucket and exited Lia's room.

Lia sighed and headed into her bathroom. She peeled off her wet clothes and changed into dry ones. She turned to the mirror and began to brush her recently-soaked auburn hair. It would take her a few days to think of an appropriate payback for this.

Draco Malfoy was like a brother to Lia. She couldn't stand him sometimes, but she couldn't imagine what it would be like without him. They grew up together, so he knew everything that annoyed her and used that to his advantage. But Lia was always clever about her revenge so that he would never expect it. It was an ongoing battle, with neither of them really winning.

Meals at the manor were always quite awkward for Lia. They were so prim and proper that she normally felt the urge to start laughing. It made her miss her home at Spinner's End. Luckily, breakfast this morning was interrupted by an owl crashing into the dining room. Draco faked a coughing fit as he tried to muffle his laughter.

"Amelia, please go pick up that owl," Narcissa Malfoy said calmly as she daintily took a sip of her tea. She was used to this disruption.

Lia smirked at Draco as she left her seat to retrieve the old owl. She untied the letter which had her name on it in Fred's messy scrawl and a small parcel. She picked up Errol, the Weasley family owl, and took him to the perch with Athena, her owl. He hooted in thanks.

"Who's it from, _Amelia_?" Draco sneered.

Lia sat back down. "Like you don't know, _Draco_. Who else sends me post with an owl that makes a crash landing in your dining room?"

She tore open the parchment and read the note scribbled inside.

_Amelia Evans, _

_ Happy belated birthday, Lia! Your present is attached. It's from George and me, in case you have not figured that out already. We think you'll find it quite to your liking. But, remember, we're not entirely sure of all of the side effects yet, but it's perfect payback if you should require it._

_ So, as you know, the Quidditch World Cup is going to be on Monday. If you didn't know, well, now you do. We're not sure if you have tickets yet, but, our dad just so happened to get some wicked seats for it. What we were wondering, and by "we" I mean our entire family pretty much, is if you would be delighted to come with us and then stay here for the remainder of the summer. _

_ You're last ideas for the prank sweets were fantastic, by the way. We've been experimenting with some of them, but a few are going horribly wrong and we need you're ingenious, evil, freakishly-huge brain to help us. Some of them work with only a few minor side effects. We'll tell you more when we see you. _

_ If you can come, Mum says Sunday morning would be a good time to arrive. We're going to retrieve Harry later in the day. (We're hoping to have a little fun with the Muggles, if you know what I mean.) _

_ Well, tell us soon whether you can come or not and enjoy your presents. Remember to test one out on old Drakey for us. You know how much we like him._

_ Hoping to see you soon,_

_ Gred and Forge_

"What did the troublemaking twins say this time?" Draco asked, trying to peer over the parchment.

Lia asked if she may be excused as she put the letter away. "They wanted to see if I would like to go to the Quidditch World Cup and stay at their house for the remainder of the holiday," she replied as she picked up her present and headed up the stairs to her room.

Draco followed her. "But my dad already got us tickets. You're going to come with us, right?"

"I don't know. I've never gotten to spend the summer with them before." Lia opened her door and sat on her bed.

"You would really rather spend your time with a bunch of blood traitors than me?" he asked, coming into her room. "You've hardly been here all summer."

"Draco, they're my best friends," she began as she pulled out oddly colored sweets that were labeled things like _Ton-Tongue Toffee _and _Nosebleed Nougat_. "It's not my fault I haven't been her. My uncle's been home nearly all summer." She set the candies aside. "How can you call them blood traitors? You don't even know if I'm pure-blood. For all you know, I could be Muggle-born."

"But you're not. You're a witch."

Lia rolled her eyes. "That doesn't mean anything. And stop insulting my friends before I do something I might regret."

"If you think of them as your best friends, what am I?" he asked, stopping at the door.

Lia sighed. "You're like an annoying brother. But, one that I couldn't live without. Happy?"

He smirked, and closed the door behind him.

She rolled her eyes. Draco was so difficult sometimes. By the sounds of the candies, she wouldn't be testing those out on him. She wasn't sure what Fred and George meant by "minor side effects".

There was a knock on her door. "Did you know your uncle's here?" Draco asked, sticking his head in the doorway.

Lia headed into the hallway. "No. He said he was going to be gone for a week."

Sure enough, at the bottom of the stairs, there stood her uncle. He wasn't her real uncle, even at a young age she could tell. That's just what she called him. He was her guardian since she was little and her parents died. To her, he was her Uncle Sev, to everyone else he was better known as Severus Snape.

"Why are you back so soon?" she asked once the greetings were over.

"It seems that my services were no longer required once I arrived," he explained. "Are you returning with me, or staying here?"

Lia shrugged. "Actually, I needed to ask you something. You know that the World Cup is coming up," she began. He nodded. "Well, I was invited by Fred and George to go with them and stay at their house until term starts. Is that alright?"

"The trouble making Weasley twins?" he asked.

Lia nodded. "Please can I go? We've already gotten my things from Diagon Alley and I'm all packed and everything! I promise I won't let them corrupt my innocent mind. Please?"

He looked at her, considering. "I suppose so. Get your trunk. We're heading home."

"Thanks!" she exclaimed and hugged him around the waist before running up to her bedroom. Draco followed her inside.

"So, you're going to go stay with the Weasley's? Do they even have _room_ for you in their house? I mean, it can't be that big," he said. He was upset with her and she knew it. He only insulted her friends in front of her when he was mad at her.

"Stop it, Draco. They're my _friends_. I could care less how big their house is. The amount of things you have doesn't make you a better person. And that's a lesson you should learn," Lia responded. She grabbed her quill and parchment and wrote a letter to Fred and George. She beckoned for Errol so that she could fasten the letter on.

"So, you're saying that they're better than me?" Draco asked. His face was growing redder by the second.

Lia slammed her trunk shut. "Draco. Figure out what makes a good person, and if you still can't get an answer, come and ask me." She headed for the door. "I'll see you at school."


End file.
